Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ (CHCCS) Board of Education met last week for its regular meeting, where the board unanimously approved initial and updated policies regarding North Carolina’s new “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” an anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed by the legislature this past August.
The Parents’ Bill of Rights, officially titled Senate Bill 49, censors LGBTQ-related content from school curriculum, as well as forces educators and staff to “out” LGBTQ+ students to parents. The law officially went into effect after Jan. 1, and school districts across the state, including CHCCS, have been approving policies to be in compliance with the new law.
However, CHCCS’ school board has elected to not create a protocol which would disclose students’ sexual orientation and preferred pronouns and names to parents. The board also said it wouldn’t create a policy barring the instruction of gender identity and sexuality in its elementary schools.
“We’re not looking to be contrary or get into any kind of struggle with legislators or anybody else, and we hope that won’t happen,” Board Chair George Griffin told the newspaper Friday. “Anytime you go up against a regulation or a law, you run the risk of people not being happy about that.”
Several school board members and many community members, students and teachers have spoken at the meetings, saying the Parents’ Bill of Rights would harm LGBTQ+ students more than help them. Another vote will be held on the policy at a date yet to be announced.
Some Republican legislators responded to CHCCS’ decision, saying the General Assembly should penalize the school districts who refuse to comply with all provisions of SB 49.
“A supermajority voted for this legislation,” North Carolina Senate Majority Whip Jim Perry, a Lenoir County Republican, stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter). “I look forward to addressing this lawless behavior in the short session. This presents a great opportunity to see where others stand on law and order.”
The Campaign for Southern Equality recently filed a lawsuit against the Parents’ Bill of Rights, alleging the policies enforced by the Parents’ Bill of Rights singles out LGBTQ+ students, stigmatizing and alienating them from their heterosexual or cisgender counterparts. However, legal challenges take time to go through due process, so school systems still have to abide by SB 49 until otherwise stated.
Orange County Democratic State Senator Graig Meyer, who is also a former social worker, applauded the decision from CHCCS.
“As I told my General Assembly colleagues in the debate of the bill, if I were back as a social worker in (the district) and I had to decide between caring for a student and your stupid law, I would choose the student every single time,” Meyer said.
